The present invention relates to a joint assembly of a leader and a photographic film for ease of the film being transferred to a development station as guided with the leader and to a splicer for making the joint assembly.
In a common automatic photographic film development apparatus using a leader transfer system, a leader L is joined at its trailing end to the leading end of a film F fed out from a cartridge (not shown) by a strip of splicing tape T, as shown in FIG. 7 (I), so that the film F is passed through the development apparatus while being guided by the leader L.
The leader L is made of a flexible resin material sheet having a row of square perforations a provided at equal intervals in one edge thereof for engagement with a sprocket of the development apparatus lengthwisely of the film F.
A leading portion of the film F with the leader L is separated by cutting along the line denoted by C in FIG. 7(I) after the development process of the film F. The remaining film F less the leader L is then fed into a negative film mask in the exposure station of a printer machine.
For removing the leader L, the leading portion of the film F is cut at a right angle to the feeding direction. Hence, the resultant leading end of the remaining film F has a pair of square corners D as shown in FIG. (II). When the leading end of the film F is directly inserted into the negative film mask, its square corners may possibly be deflected and bent causing jamming in the negative film mask of the exposure station. This will prevent smooth running of the film F through the printer machine.
It is thus a first object of the present invention to provide an improved joint assembly of a leader and a film for ease of the film being transferred and passed smoothly through a negative film mask.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a splicer for making with ease such a joint assembly of a leader and a film so that the film can be transferred without jamming.